9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. The Liberating Law of the Spirit of Life. Romans 3 My life is being ruled by the spirit, thus I am being led by the Spirit and in that I have then this joined together with God in the spirit as His Spirit is bearing witness with my spirit. Abraham is the proof of the value of faith in justification before God. The Christian waits, not for death, but for life. THE LOVE FROM WHICH NOTHING CAN SEPARATE US ( Romans 8:31-39 ). I don't have to live as a subject to my flesh anymore. Therefore, the keynote of the Christian life is always hope and never despair. It is not a rash and sudden determination, but the product of a very serious and deliberate consideration. In Romans 14:1-23 and the beginning ofRomans 15:1-33; Romans 15:1-33 we have the delicate theme of Christian forbearance in its limits and largeness. They thought I was dead. Even if other sons were afterwards born, it did not affect his rights. God has made it so simple. January 15, 2023. And we who are in these bodies do often groan earnestly desiring to be delivered, not to be unembodied, but to be clothed upon with the body which is from heaven. But did this satisfy the apostle? But there is more than this in Romans 4:1-25 He takes up a third feature of Abraham's case; that is, the connection of the promise with resurrection. . And you are going to go over to Moscow and you are going to start pointing at the tanks and they are going to start dissolving. Paul goes further; he goes on to speak of the spiritual experience of every Christian. Nature did not want man to sin. God said to Abraham: "You have not withheld your son, your only son, from me" ( Genesis 22:12). He is talking here of the Mosaic Law, which he said was holy, just and good, but what it could not do, what was the limitation of the law of Moses, or what could it not do, the law of Moses could not make a man righteous before God. Then who is going to lay anything to my charge, because God elected me? Lord, what is man, that thou shouldst thus magnify him! Romans 8 actually teaches us God is not interested in just "getting us into heaven", and heaven is not just a way of escape for us. Shall trial, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Hereupon he enters upon the direct proofs, and first cites Hosea as a witness. It has always the idea of power about it, power as of a mighty rushing wind. Wonderful to think the Spirit of God associates Himself with us in it all, deigning to give us divine feelings even in our poor and narrow hearts. Here it is not merely the negation of law and of circumcision, but we have the positive side. 23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. No fresh revelations from God can nullify those which preceded them; but as the prophets looked onward to what was coming, so is the gospel already come, supported by the past. Who is he who condemns? While striving for holiness under the law, Paul had focused on the commands (e.g., "lust") so that his mind-set was fleshly: "I must steer clear of all lust." This fleshly orientation doomed him to commit the very sin he sought to avoid. So, Paul is saying, it is the Holy Spirit himself who is the witness to our adoption into the family of God. So Jesus, in the hour of suffering or persecution, points us to the glory of that kingdom that we are going to experience for eternity. Because you were not answering to the very basic cause of your existence. There followed a ceremony called vindicatio. But if Christ is in you, even if because of sin your body is mortal, your Spirit has life through righteousness. 13). In the most binding legal way, he got a new father. I think it would be good for all of us to make a little plaque and put it on our mirrors or someplace where we are reminded every day that all things are working together for good to those who love God. They remain on earth for this purpose: and this should be their leading aim. was true, accordingly, before the law, right through the law, and ever since the law. He is going to complete that work in me. There was somewhat as yet lacking to the saints there; but even this was ordered of God to call forth from the Holy Ghost an epistle which more than any other approaches a complete treatise on the fundamentals of Christian doctrine, and especially as to righteousness. As Paul saw it, prayer, like everything else, is of God. (2) That it is not what they desire, to be subjected to the toils of this life, and to the temptations and vanities of this world. This God has wrought in Christ. He says that those who are in the flesh cannot please God ( Romans 8:8). Their present state is a state of education and preparation for the inheritance. There was no law there or then; for Abraham died long before God spoke from Sinai. Far beyond. whereas the mind of the spirit is life and peace ( Romans 8:6 ). For the present sufferings are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed. First of all, the groundwork of it is laid in the first four verses, the last of them leading into every-day walk. Not only was Abraham justified without law, but apart from that great sign of mortification of the flesh. Romans 8:20 in all English translations. First of all the apostle points out that death has come in, and that this was no consequence of law, but before it. Why it is, he has not seen fit to inform us fully. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly: According to Louw and Nida, the word "vanity" (mataio/thti) means "pertaining to being useless on the basis of being futile and lacking in content" (Vol. He could not have remitted heretofore. That I could have that ear infection and I could somehow take her suffering and bear it for her so that she wouldn't have to suffer. There we find Christian knowledge as to the matter introduced; but still it is the knowledge of one who is not in this state pronouncing on one who is. We heard the story of this wondrous love. Now, unfortunately, there are those radical groups that take a verse like this and a phrase "manifestation of the sons of God" and they use it to build a whole pernicious doctrine. We have had justification, both by blood and also in virtue of Christ's resurrection. The sufferings of the saints are but sufferings of this present time, strike no deeper than the things of time, last no longer than the present time (2 Corinthians 4:17), light affliction, and but for a moment. If Christ is in you, then the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. Accordingly we do not hear of salvation as such in Romans 3:1-31. ( Romans 8:32 ). When we pray in tongues, we give the Holy Spirit freedom to help us pray. subjected -- The word subject to means placed in such a state; subjected to it by the appointment of another, as a soldier has his rank and place assigned him in an army. All Israel shall be saved. There is the vindication of God in His ways with the Old Testament believers. Now, that suffering saints may have strong supports and consolations from their hopes of heaven, he holds the balance (Romans 8:18; Romans 8:18), in a comparison between the two, which is observable. 20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, 21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Paul's basic thought is that the Christian is indissolubly one with Christ. Intertextual Commentary on Romans, Volume 2: Romans 5:1--8:39 by Channing L. Cri . Any date. Article Images Copyright 2023 Getty Images unless otherwise indicated. To live according to the flesh is to live a life dominated by the dictates and desires of sinful human nature instead of a life dominated by the dictates and the love of God. Nothing less, I am persuaded, than this full blessing is the line that God has given to those who have followed Christ without the camp, and who, having been set free from the contracted ways of men, desire to enter into the largeness and at the same time the profound wisdom of every word of God. "To all that be at Rome, beloved of God, called saints" (ver. The doctrine of faith therefore, which reposes on the cross, establishes law, instead of making it void, as every other principle must (verses 27-31). And he feels the close affinity to it, because the baboon is living just like he lives. The threads are beginning to get a little old, rip a lot easier. conceits they had of themselves, of their wisdom, knowledge, Thy Strong Word Exodus 37 . I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. (Romans 8:28) 12/04/11 : The "Ordo Salutis" (Romans 8:28-30) 12/11/11 : Sovereignty & Responsibility (Romans 8:28-30 Part 2) 12/18/11 : God is For Us! We'll send you an email with steps on how to reset your password. "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man," etc. We cannot know our own real need; we cannot with our finite minds grasp God's plan; in the last analysis all that we can bring to God is an inarticulate sigh which the Spirit will translate to God for us. This doctrine of the manifestation of the sons of God is sort of a heavy kind of a doctrine. And when we look back upon our Christian experience, all we can say is, "I did not do this; I could never have done this; God did everything." Romans 12:9-18 Sundry practical duties re-commended, Romans 12:1 Commen-taries: Therefore I urge you, brethren . Grace is the first-fruits of glory, it is glory begun. Verses 20, 21. For in the sad disorder which followed the fall of Adam, the whole machinery of the world would have instantly become deranged, and all its parts would have failed had not some hidden strength supported them. God saw that there was no companion for man. What about His word passed and sworn to the fathers? Jesus is in charge. I was constantly feeling condemnation. They too should live. And we know well that this does not take freewill away. Broadly speaking, he uses it in three different ways. But now it is "the wrath of God from heaven;" and consequently it is in view of eternal things, and not of those that touch present life on the earth. The judgments of God will fall on man as man, but the heaviest blows are reserved for Christendom. There is an enmity of one creature to another; they are all subject to continual alteration and decay of the individuals, liable to the strokes of God's judgments upon man. The ground taken by a Jew for supposing God exclusively for Israel was, that they had the law, which was the measure of what God claimed from man; and this the Gentile had not. 7). . The spirit is groaning, waiting for that perfect work of God. The past prepared the way, as it is said here, "which God had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures, concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, [here we have the great central object of God's gospel, even the person of Christ, God's Son,] which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh" (ver. Not one of them is able to separate the Christian from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ, Lord of every terror and Master of every world." The gospel means His glad tidings for man. Right now I am living in a tent, this body. That there is, of course, a grain of truth in such views, stems from the fact that both Adam and Satan had a part in it, Satan as the provocateur, and Adam as the rebellious instrument. No matter how old he was, he was still under the patria potestas, in the absolute possession and under the absolute control, of his father. But he that searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God ( Romans 8:27 ). That was never God's intention that prayer should be the instrument by which man can accomplish his will upon the earth. In other words, that we might be made the sons of God, but the firstborn is first in prominence, Jesus first in prominence, but He is the firstborn of many brethren. I mean the redemption of our body. Those who live according to the dictates of the Spirit are absorbed in the things of the Spirit. Colonial style, surrounded by beautiful gardens. Now it was manifested, and not promised or predicted merely. He concludes the sufferings not worthy to be compared with the glory--ouk axia pros ten doxan. 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